1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to backing up data in servers using web browser's cache memory of a client.
2. Description of Background
In recent years, data accumulated on web servers (web data) has been increasing in importance. In addition, it is necessary to back up data in case of an accidental loss. The total amount of these data has been on the increase. Moreover, since the number of users is also increasing, there are varieties of ways for data backup such as holding historical data for each user and the like. As a result, the operations of backup are becoming complicated and a workload thereof is becoming enormous. In order to back up these data on a server side, there is an increase in resource and management costs necessary to provide for the server. In the server, a tape drive and the like are used for the current data backup and recovery operations by use of the backup data.
Apart from this, as for backup and recovery operation both of which are likely to be operated on a client's side, a method for constructing a web application performed manually is used. The method can be seen especially in a home network router and the like, which are small-scaled web applications. In these small-scaled web applications, backup data is transmitted/received between a client and a server via HTTP (command input for executing the GET method or POST method), and is then stored. Moreover, when there arises a necessity for restoring web data by use of backup data, a file including the backup data is specified by use of an HTML input form whose type attribute is a file, and then the file is transmitted from the client to the server via HTTP (command input for executing the POST method) in order for the web data to be recovered. In other words, an operator of a web-browser manually performs the operations upon backup and recovery in the existing circumstances.
Furthermore, in Patent Document 1, a client has a cache function for temporarily storing contents of a web server, and the system is a distributed system for delivering contents. However, when the contents of the web server are destroyed or the like, how to upload contents held by the client as the backup data is not clearly disclosed. The prior art does not address the above mentioned problems and therefore, it would be desirable to provide for an apparatus and method in which a server or other large computing system can cause a client to provide back up of at least a part of resource data by use of an HTTP protocol.